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As I said I would when the need ( or the interest arose), I looked up the information on the social security site about the federal pension windfall provision for the employees for whom this is applicable, read the tables provided there. I see that the tables indicate that for those employees who have 20 years or fewer of work in which they paid into SS, and eligible for the federal pension ( employed prior to 1983 with enough years), their SS benefits are reduced by a factor of 40%- essentially,they get 40% of what they would have collected in SS benefits had they not worked for the federal government and collected the federal pension. At least from reading the PDF files on the topic is how I understand it.
So obviously my DH was misinformed, obviously he was happy to find that he was wrong and the 17 years he spent working at non-federal jobs and putting into SS were all for nought... I'm happy to see that anyone in the same boat will collect *some* of the SS he/she put into the system.
As for the "service" rendered by an apparently self-appointed veracity marshall, IMO he'd get better responses with an improvement in tone aimed at those he accuses of spreading "mistruths" about any given topic on the forum. One can present the facts as one knows them without accompanying disparaging remarks...
And that is all I have to say on the topic..... we're done.
Some background info. Many of us on the forum are aware that Madman was a consultant/presenter for the federal govt on the various windfall related positions so there is a natural deference to his thinking since the government was paying him to do that at one time.
Mad Man of Bethesda is very knowledgeable about federal retirement systems and he does us a service here on CD to at least point us in the right direction when we're confused about our benefits. I do know there is a lot of misinformation about SS and the CSRS pensions. My cousin retired from the Customs service in Miami and they were told not even to bother applying for SS. I told her that was not true, and explained about the Windfall provisions. In our seminars from DoD in DC we were told that most of us CSRS retirees had worked enough in the private sector to collect some SS, but not as much as those annual notices we get tell us. I question the quality of my cousin's retirement seminar, the guy that ran it actually is in trouble for selling fraudulent investments to most of the Customs officers, but that's a whole other story. I will need about 4 more"credits" to be eligible to collect SS. One of these days I'll have to stop procrastinating and get a part-time job that pays SS tax. I should be able to collect enough to pay my part B Medicare at least. I'm a 30 year CSRS worker, retired in 2010, by the way. I'm loving retirement and not over-eager to go back to work.
I know they changed the pension system in 1983, so that the federal employees hired that year or later began paying into SS, as well as their pension plan( ??) So you'd collect both, right?
Like my state pension. We contributed to both and collect both the pension (such as it is, but I'm not complaining) and SS.
You are correct as the law is now. If you are FERS you will not be hit with a windfall penalty.
Just reached MRA 56 with 34 years and counting. Hoping to make age 60 so I can collect both my military pension and FERS at the same time. No one complained either when I was called to duty during Desert Storm or OEF/OIF. Since I am National Guard I can also throw in all the state deployments for storms like Sandy or the blizzards we get, not to mention the tornados we respond to and assistance we give to other states. So to those who feel we get too much please think again.
As I said I would when the need ( or the interest arose), I looked up the information on the social security site about the federal pension windfall provision for the employees for whom this is applicable, read the tables provided there. I see that the tables indicate that for those employees who have 20 years or fewer of work in which they paid into SS, and eligible for the federal pension ( employed prior to 1983 with enough years), their SS benefits are reduced by a factor of 40%- essentially,they get 40% of what they would have collected in SS benefits had they not worked for the federal government and collected the federal pension. At least from reading the PDF files on the topic is how I understand it.
Unfortunately, you still don't understand how it works.
In deference to your previous request, I won't provide you with the correct information (yet again).
To Bucfan: For 31 years everyone told me I was stupid to work in a government job. They said I could make so much more on the "outside". Now they are the same people who say I was lucky to work for the Feds and retire from there. They are the same people that complain about the benefits I earned.
No way lucky. I was smart and had goals and met all of them. I knew there was stability in the government job and that was fine for me. I took that low paying job so I could work my way up the ladder on a career path slowly and steadily.
Great post, and darn near every word is applicable to both me and my wife.
We both retired from the Library of Congress as CSRS retirees in '08 - me with a bit over 35 years (including some military and unused sick leave) and my wife with 30 years. We both started as GS-3s - I ended up a 13, and my wife a 12. And your comment about "work my way up the ladder on a career path slowly and steadily" absolutely applies to us. Hell, I started in the mail room (talk about a stereotype!) and ended up a librarian.
We both had great careers, we both enjoyed our various jobs along the way, we both are very grateful we could retire when we did, and we are both enjoying the hell out of retirement.
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